INSIDE MEN'S BASKETBALL BY PATRICK HERB @BadgerMBB SCHEDULE (19-6, 8-4)
Last Five Jan. 22
Jan. 26 #16 Indiana W, 57-50 Jan. 31 Feb. 4 Feb. 9
#3 Ohio State
This Week Thur. Sun.
Next Five Feb. 23 Feb. 26
at Minnesota W, 68-61 (ot)
at #7 Michigan St. 6 p.m. Penn State
3 p.m. at Iowa
Feb. 28 Minnesota Mar. 4
at #3 Ohio State Illinois
Mar. 8-11 at Big Ten Tourney
8 p.m. 3 p.m. 7 p.m. TBD TBD
Is Taylor still in running
s the regular season winds down, the an- nual postseason award de- bates will ramp up all over college basketball. The Big Ten Player of the Year race is coming into focus, but the fi- nal six games could go a long way in deciding the winner. As a preseason All-Ameri- ca and All-Big Ten selection,
A 52 » VARSITY FEBRUARY 16, 2012
for Player of the Year? Badger senior has six games left to prove it
senior Jordan Taylor's name has been on the conference player of the year short list since November. However, after seeing a
dip in his scoring from last season, Taylor's name prob- ably isn't at the top of any- one's list. But is it close? Looking at the current player of the year lists from
three writers who cover the Big Ten — Sporting News' Mike DeCourcey, ESPN.com's Myron Medcalf and BTN.com's Tom Dienhart — each have Taylor third in the running be- hind Ohio State's Jared Sullinger and Michigan State's Draymond Green. That sounds fair considering the raw numbers during conference play: • Sullinger (18.8 ppg, 9.2 rpg) • Green (14.6 ppg, 11.3 rpg, 3.5 apg) • Taylor (17.0 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 3.3 apg) Perhaps the overall conference race will play as big of a factor as any in the player of the year voting. If Wisconsin (which sits 1.0 game
out of first place behind the Buckeyes and Spartans) can finish as Big Ten champions, it would be pretty hard to argue that any player is more valu- able to his team's success than Tay- lor.
Taylor and the Badgers have two head-to-head opportunities with MSU and OSU to prove their worth. That starts Thursday in East Lansing.
at #22 Illinois W, 67-63 at Penn State
W, 52-46 L, 52-58
